Heterick Summer Book Bingo 2018

Ervin blends history, memoir and reportage to examine the explosive popularity of video games. He shows how games constitute a unique storytelling medium that offers us startling new ways to think about our lives and the world around us. And he argues that the best games, as defined by the aesthetic and even political ambitions of their creators, rise to the level of art.

The bugs that transmit diseases like Ebola, SARS, and AIDS share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. In "Spillover" Quammen takes the reader along on his quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases emerge, and as he asks the terrifying question: What might the next big one be?

From the creator of the webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. Munroe's responses are masterpieces of clarity and wit, gleefully and accurately explaining everything from the effects of a baseball pitched at near the speed of light to the horrible ways you could die while building a periodic table out of all the actual elements.

Here, Tyson compiles his favorite essays across a myriad of cosmic topics. Known for his ability to blend content, accessibility, and humor, Tyson is a natural teacher who simplifies some of the most complex concepts in astrophysics while simultaneously sharing his infectious excitement about our universe.

Finding Zero is an adventure filled saga of Amir Aczel's lifelong obsession: to find the original sources of our numerals. Aczel has doggedly crisscrossed the ancient world, scouring dusty, moldy texts, cross examining so-called scholars who offered wildly differing sets of facts, and ultimately penetrating deep into a Cambodian jungle to find a definitive proof.

Many people think of microbes as germs to be eradicated, but those that live with us--the microbiome--build our bodies, protect our health, shape our identities, and grant us incredible abilities. In this astonishing book, Ed Yong takes us on a grand tour through our microbial partners, and introduces us to the scientists on the front lines of discovery.

For hundreds of years it was common sense: women were the inferior sex. Their bodies were weaker, their minds feebler, their role subservient. But a huge wave of research is now revealing an alternative version of what we thought we knew. The new woman revealed by this scientific data is as strong, strategic, and smart as anyone else.

Covering 92 million acres from Virginia to Texas, the longleaf pine ecosystem was once one of the most extensive and biologically diverse ecosystems in North America. Today these forests have declined to a fraction of their original extent. Lawrence S. Earley explores the history of these forests and their astonishing biodiversity, drawing on extensive research and telling the story through first-person travel accounts and interviews with foresters, ecologists, biologists, botanists, and landowners.

The Great Lakes hold 20% of the world's supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. Dan Egan portrays the ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come.